The Reformation in England, in the wider sense, covers the reigns of Henry VIII through Queen Anne. (1509-1714), two tumultuous centuries.
1. Renewal and Reform
- The Renaissance and Erasmus
- Luther
+ German resentment of Rome
+ 95 Theses (1517), Diet of Worms (1521), First German Bible
2. The Break with Rome
- Henry as Defender of the Faith
- The Divorce Question
- The use of Parliament to enact separation
- Catholicism without the Pope
- The swing toward Lutheranism
- The Great Bible
- The Dissolution of the Monasteries
- Edward VI’s reign and the Hot Gospelers
- First Book of Common Prayer SHOW COPY
- Bloody Mary’s failed reign
- The need for Parliamentary action
- No return of abbey lands
- Spanish alliance and burning of heretics
- Genevan exiles – contact w/ Calvinism
- Foxe’s Book of Martyrs SHOW COPY
- Elizabeth comes to the throne
- Committed to Protestantism, but desirous of being as inclusive as possible
- Parliament approves compromise reformation
- 39 Articles
- Puritans think Settlement is first step; Elizabeth intends it to be final
- Jesuits and Popish plots threaten Elizabeth from one side, Puritans from the other
- Reason: Establishment by law in Parliament
- Result: Less of a break with the past, less tendency to start with a blank sheet of paper
- In common with other English Protestants, agreed that the Pope was NOT the Head of the English Church and the eucharist was NOT a re-sacrifice or transubstantiary
- In contrast with the bishops, however, the Puritans were thorough-going Calvinists
- This especially meant Predestination and a very low view of the sacraments, but also a disdain for ceremony, hierarchy, vestments and ornaments, etc.
- Cambridge was the hotbed of Puritanism, Oxford of what would be eventually called “high church” and “Anglo-Catholicism”
- Puritan agitation in Parliament
- The Puritan Classical movement
- Failure of Puritanism under Elizabeth